Warren Ellis's take on the battle of Crecy, a major battle in the Hundred Years war between England and France and also one of warfare's most important historical battles.

This being a Warren Ellis comic, expect coarse language, nasty humor, graphic violence and expect to learn, too.

The black and white artwork is simply exquisite.

If you're squeamish, you may want to stay away from Crecy, it's your loss. But if you're familiar with Ellis's works, you know you are in for a treat.

http://rapidshare.com/files/209382333/Crecy__2007_.rar

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=H92Y5ZTL

Original, imaginative and beautiful dark fantasy. If you love movies like Coraline (a great adaptation of the Neil Gaiman's book) and Pan's Labyrinth, this comic will make your day.

101 pages. Colors.

Review from Broken Frontier:

The inimitable Edgar Allan Poe squeezes a hero out his backside, and what comes next is, unbelievably, a brilliant fantasy epic on par with Mouse Guard.

What’s in a name? In the case of The Surreal Adventures of Edgar Allan Poo, the title is a literal one, an absolute, pinpoint, accurate explanation of what you’ll find inside, as the historical E.A. Poe, taking care of business in an outhouse latrine, ejects a Mini-Me version of himself, a miniature little tin-type that falls down the toilet hole and into a world that’s one part surrealism a la Alice in Wonderland, two parts high fantasy anthropomorphism a la Redwall, and three parts dark epic danger in the vein of Lord of the Rings. Perhaps Little Nemo in Slumberland is the closest, stand-alone comparison to be made, although even then -- in case my flailing from classic to classic in desperate attempt to explain this magnificent bastard of a graphic novel hasn’t already clued you in -- the work in question is plainly unique, and stands on its own, a story well worth the read no matter how overexposed to past fantasy standards one may or may not be.

Writer Dwight L. MacPherson (of Markosia’s Dead Men Tell No Tales and Silent Devil’s Jim Reaper fame) has crafted an astonishingly good fantasy comic, utilizing the much loved through-the-looking-glass narrative structure of moving between real world to fictional world and then back again, and via this, weaves a complex, though wholly undemanding heroic quest comic. Basically, when the aforementioned ejected Edgar Allan Poo falls into the land of Terra Somnium, he befriends many a curious character there, all impossibly conceived, and they in turn lead him on a journey to discover his origins, his importance to this fantastical locale, and how both of these relate to a veritable cavalcade of nightmarish villains. Toss in a main baddie as quintessentially evil as Sauron or the Storm King, a story as caringly crafted and intellectually intriguing as it is random and damn-the-torpedoes, let’s make Edgar Allan Poe a piece of poop, TSAEAP is one lovable, enchanting gem.

Though -- story aside -- does the art sell it? Does it enhance it, suit it, make it all that it sounds to be? Oh, baby…the art is phenomenal. If ever I write a comic book, whatever the subject matter, whatever its desired aesthetic, tone, and tint, I am hand-selecting Thomas Boatwright to illustrate it, because he is bloody amazing. Handling all pencils, inks, and colors, he delivers a style like Scott Morse as trained by Don Bluth, a ridiculously well-matched blend of figurative art and crystal-clear animation. His protagonists are winsome and his villains fierce and his backgrounds deserve a gallery show of their own. Even better, his chosen color palate for Edgar Allan Poo is bar none; it evokes all the proper shades of atmosphere at all the right times, an exactingly painted portrait of a true gothic fantasy.

Now, this here book, it’s from Image, so no one’s got any excuse to blah blah blah my comic shop won’t blah -- your comic shop’s got it, and they can easily get more of it, so you get on and get it! At $9.99 for 96 gorgeously rendered pages of well constructed high-weird fantasy, you cannot, under any circumstances, go wrong with this book. It’s only "Book 1," too, so much more to come from these guys. The first outing comes to a decent enough close, though it’s largely a cliffhanger, with many questions left unanswered, nearly all the problems left unresolved. Still, I’ve rarely read so much actual event inside a mere 96 page GN (slim, for a collection), and here again I’ll stroke Mr. MacPherson’s ego by claiming his script to be the densest damn use of a sparse, nearly decompressed style I’ve ever experienced. So check it out, and let a long line of Edgar Allan Poo books rain from the heavens (so you can spend all those pennies that come from the same)!

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=88WKNNDY

Buy this comic from Amazon.

There is almost nothing I love more than hard-boiled characters, whether they are in a novel, a comic book or a movie. Back in Blackmail is hard-boiled excellence at its best. Read review below. Download link is at the bottom.

Review from curledup.com:

The year is 2024 and the place is Los Angeles, a seething cesspool of violence, drugs, and corruption. Right, not much has changed, except that mutations and aliens are in—and that’s not a reference to plastic surgery and people from other countries. After a case goes particular sour for private investigator Billy Blackburn, he finds himself stuck in the gutters with few people other than bill collectors knocking at his door. When the wealthy businessman Mr. Torchsong comes knocking and almost instantly hires Billy, he is grateful, to be sure,though not entirely without suspicion. But, for now, the money is flowing, and that is what an investigator thrives on.

Torchsong requests that Billy recover the original video of his daughter involved in lewd acts and excessive drug intact that someone is using to blackmail Torchsong. Realizing the depth and force that might be needed in this investigation, Billy quickly employs the help of his harder, stronger, more aggressive friend, Knuckles. But shortly into the case, it becomes apparent that there are several people with vested interest in this, and that solving this case is going to take a bit more than Torchsong originally implied. Several car chases, fist fights with an anthropomorphized steroid-injecting shark, and a sadistic clown later, and they quickly discover how perverse the world can be.

Hard-Bullied Comics is a gritty, smart, action-packed tale filled with its share of sarcasm, brutality, and noir that fans of creators such as Warren Ellis, Garth Ennis, and Grant Morrison will thoroughly relish. Earnhart brings a fresh vibe to the hard-boiled detective genre that will leave readers yearning for more.

Rudolf Montemayor’s art perfectly complements Earnhart’s narrative style. The stark black and white art works well with the story, creating a cold environment where blood and skin are colorless, as if in this dystopian future they matter little. Montemayor does some really interesting work throughout this collection, manipulating panels, character viewpoints, and visual displays such as television screens within the story itself. Though he generally sticks to a paneled format for most of the book, when he does break out of the borders, it leaves that much more of an impression on the reader.

The book includes a decent collection of extras. The first is a different artist’s adaptation of Issue #2. As a point of comparison, it proves intriguing to see how artists work with the same dialogue but illustrate it in different manners. This is followed by a brief tour of Los Angeles and the classic bars and lounges that have served as fodder for detective stories in Los Angeles for decades. The next is a bit more dubious. The creators decided to include a variety of alcoholic drinking recipes for readers to enjoy. It makes sense, on the one hand, since adults are the general demographic here, but on the other hand it seems rather irrelevant. However, the background information provided on the history of hardboiled detective stories in the pages thereafter is a great way to allow readers to further understand the mechanics of this story. A brief sketch gallery of future characters and a profile page of characters included in the first volume round out the bonus material in this striking new series.


Originally published on Curled Up With A Good Book at www.curledup.com. © Lance Eaton, 2007

Buy this comic at Hard-bullied comics

Download:
http://rapidshare.com/files/167417397/Back_in_Blackmail.rar (59mb)

Blacksad (vol 1-3)
Written by Juan Diaz Canales
Art by Guarnido

[There is supposedly 5 volumes, only 3 were scanlated from french editions. One of the greatest and most beautiful crime-noir comics ever published!! The artwork is simply gorgeous!! A must-read for everyone, even the casual comic reader. This comic reminds me of S. Andrew Swann's Forests of the night, in which the hero is a hard-boiled half-tiger, half-human detective.]

Here is what some of legends in the comic industry have to say about Blacksad:

"Brilliant art and an unusual display of anthropomorphic realism" - Will Eisner

"The art is totally fantastic. The story is like following the most gripping movie directed by the most inspired director. It's everything a sensational graphic novel should be-and more. I case i didnt make myself clear- I think Blacksad is as good as it gets"-Stan Lee

Meet John Blacksad, a cat in the shadows. Imagine New York as a city of criminal rats, jazz-playing gorillas and rhino thugs. Enter a mystery where the suspects have tails. Find out why comics' biggest names are wild about one of the freshest graphic novels in years. Enter the world of Blacksad. Natalia Wilford is a famous actress. To the world, she had everything anybody could wat: beauty, fame, glamour and lovers who would do anything for her. When she is found murdered in her home, it touches the man who had not seen her since their bitter breakup many years ago...private eye John Blacksad. He vows to find Natalia's murderer. When the police are told to call off their investigation of the crime, Blacksad charges forward alone, risking his license, his reputation and even his life!

From Publishers Weekly

The second volume of Canales and Guarnido's hybrid of hard-boiled detective and anthropomorphic-animal comics is a visual masterpiece. The entire work is constructed around a single joke, but a brilliant one. PI John Blacksad gets involved with an investigation having to do with a white power group, the Arctics, that's been murdering blacks; a kidnapping; and a dark secret of illegitimate birth. It's a standard-issue detective-novel plot, if nicely handled—but the twist is that all the characters are animal-headed humanoids, and the tension revolves around not the color of their skin, but the color of their fur. Blacksad is a black cat; a racist politician is a polar bear; there's a black power gang led by a black horse; etc. (The climactic plot twist involves a white character turning out to have a small patch of black fur.) Like any good gumshoe tale, the story's crammed with sex and violent gunplay, and Guarnido manages to set even his wackiest-looking characters within gritty, realistic backgrounds and lighting. His art is exquisitely sensitive to the nuances of facial expression and body language—not an easy feat with characters who are drawn as weasels, crows or mice. The story's point, though, is the vicious absurdity of racism, and Canales and Guarnido express it by making their tone absolutely straight.

From SplashPanel:

Blacksad is probably one of , if not the very best anthropomorphic graphic novels currently on the stands, if ever published. I know this might sound like hyperbole, but in this case it would be a fact. Not trying to pigeon hole it or anything I’ll even go a little further and say that it’s one of the best crime noir series I’ve read in a good long while. Make no mistake, just because animals are used here instead of humans does not mean you can give this to your little brother to read. This isn’t Donald Duck we’re talking about here.

The story is set in what seems to be a place very much like LA during the 1950s. So the buildings, cars and clothes all fit within that time period. The book starts off with a murder case (how else would a book set in the 1950s start?) and John Blacksad, a private eye has been called in by the Police because he knew the murdered woman in question. They give him the regular qliched line about him not getting involved and leave it to the professionals, which of course he doesn’t really bother listening to and he begins his search for the person who murdered his ex-movie actress girlfriend. That’s the setup, the middle part continues in a very familiar fashion (at least to those who have seen this sort of movie before), however it ends in a way you wouldn’t really expect.

The characters all have unique voices It’s clever, it’s funny and oddly, it’s very very human, which I guess is Canales’s greatest achievement in this book.

(read more at: http://splashpanel.com/archives/blacksad-somewhere-within-the-shadows-volume-1/)

Buy this comic from Amazon.

Download vol. 1-3:
http://rapidshare.com/files/167407775/Blacksad.rar (50mb)

If you have read The Nightly News by Jonathan Hickman then know that this new mini-series is also something special. I can't write a review for the life of me so I copied this one from Aintitcool.com. The review is right on the spot. Download link below.

Review for issue #1 from Aintitcool.com:
PAX ROMANA #1
Writer/Artist: Jonathan Hickman
Publisher: Image Comics
Reviewed by Humphrey Lee

In the recent months since Jonathan Hickman's debut in comic books with THE NIGHTLY NEWS he's been called many things: Innovative, visionary, exhilarating, etc. But quite frankly I'm here to call him one wordy motherfucker. But it's okay! Because, goddammit, this is the first time in I don't know how long where a comic has earned every last penny I spilled out on it, simply based on how long I spent digesting it. There's a lot to appreciate in a book that knows the value of a dollar...

Just like with THE NIGHTLY NEWS, Hickman's first issue in the four issue mini that is PAX ROMANA here lives up to all the adjectives I threw around to begin this review. Right off the bat you can't help but notice the art with its ruggedly smooth lines and unbelievably lush colors. Already if there's anything I've come to be excited about with the man's work, it's the art. Most times there's not a lot of panels, and yes, there's more word balloons in this issue here than possibly in all the other comics of your weekly stack combined, but it still remains untameably vivid, rife with symbolism and iconography. Hell, I've only seen a whole seven comics of this stuff (and a few stray pages from the POPGUN anthology TPB) and I'd pay top dollar just to have an art book detailing Hickman's creative process as he creates his visuals, and art books are something I rarely, if ever, purchase.

Okay, enough with getting all gooey over the line work, how's the story and what exactly is PAX ROMANA about? PR is actually a pretty intriguing mess of Religion, Politics and Military Ops all wrapped around a creamy Science Fiction center dealing with the concept of Time Travel. The main conceit of PAX ROMANA is a future seemingly dominated by the Holy Roman Empire and the tale of how this came to be, from a point in its past (our near future) where the first scientists to successfully bend time to their whim weren't from the employ of Governmental or Independent science groups dedicated to the concept, but that of the Vatican. From there the pages of PR denote in great detail (I did mention this book is wordy right?) a domino effect of events leading to the unthinkable: The Pope and Cardinal Council devising a plot to time displace a unit of handpicked soldiers and scientists into a period of history where their nudging hand in that society can most effectively lead to a world dominated by the Church.

... Fuck me, I guess Mr. Hickman isn't the only wordy bastard in the house...

But, all said, even with the half hour read time this issue took me, I wouldn't have changed a thing. This is stylistically the same approach Hickman took with his NIGHTLY NEWS and it worked there just like it works here. Yes, there's a lot of information being dumped here, but it never once makes for a boring read; in fact it actually makes for the opposite as all the info fleshes out the world the story takes place in so much that you can't help but be enveloped in it. Really, the only issue I had with THE NIGHTLY NEWS is that in the end it was actually a little predictable, and even though it knew what it was and tried to avoid comparisonal pitfalls, it really did run a bit like some of its influences, mainly the movie NETWORK. PAX here, though, is a story unlike I've really encountered with comics. Yes, of course I've seen a dozen times the use of Time Travel in comics to "reshape the world in some diabolical image!" or whatever but PAX ROMANA is working on a much more human and fundamental level than the norm. As stated in the back matter of this issue, this is a book about sociology, not necessarily to make a stand on Religion or what have you, and I see a lot of intriguing concepts and debate coming out of this on the matter of a society and extra-societal forces--cause and effect type stuff.

Already I can tell this book is probably smarter than I am, but dammit I'm still in for the duration. Hickman's thought processes when it comes to just what a comic book can be are something that the industry needs to take note of. It's just simply thinking at a different wavelength that the majority of books out there aren't. These stories might not be terribly new in origin, but they're working at least a step or two above conventional thinking when it comes to the subject matter and how it is presented to us. Hickman is simply stepping up and doing what always needs done at some point: pushing a medium along and progressing it to the next level. Here and now is the time to see what the future of comics is...

Buy this comic at Amazon.

http://rapidshare.com/files/166161306/Pax_Romana.rar(44mb)